Download these useful guides* (page 1/page 2) for a self-guided tour of University Town!

Alternatively, you may also wish to embark on an interactive self-guided tour by downloading our NUS Campus Explorer app available on both ITunes and Google Play Store! Listen to the audio guides and check in to the various buildings to win a mystery gift! Have fun exploring UTown!

* Best viewed in Google Chrome and optimised for A3

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Quotes
"Being part of the Tembusu community has been an exhilarating experience! Apart from participating in student-initiated activities as well as honing my critical thinking skills through the uniquely designed Ideas and Exposition modules, informal learning opportunities are also available to enhance and complete my College experience."
- Timothy

Did you know?
To cater to every sleep cycle, many facilities such as the PC and Mac Commons, and the study clusters, are open 24/7.

University Town College Programme (UTCP)

The University Town College Programme (UTCP) is a residential programme offered at College of Alice & Peter Tan, Residential College 4, and Tembusu College. Designed as a more coherent delivery of general education, the UTCP emphasises multidisciplinary learning and active small-group learning. Students from different disciplines, cultures, and nationalities are put together in each class, which helps them to assimilate and synthesise cross-disciplinary knowledge, facilitating multi-perspectival thinking.

Through its multidisciplinary curriculum, the UTCP will help students develop effective communications and strong writing skills, critical thinking skills, and intellectual breadth and rigour to tackle the complex, inter-related challenges confronting the world today. A host of informal learning activities, such as talks by distinguished visitors, as well as social and sporting activities, complements the formal curriculum.

“I would like the College to make a real and meaningful impact on the lives of our students as they prepare to enter the working world. For the College of Alice & Peter Tan, we’ve chosen the theme of active citizenship and community engagement, and this will be woven into the curriculum and other activities. Ultimately, the experience will be defined by the students, Fellows and everyone else who wants to contribute to the College community.”

UTCP Curriculum

Ideas and Exposition modulesThe UTCP includes two modules on Ideas and Exposition. Process oriented, content driven and rhetorically intensive, the Ideas and Exposition modules taught in seminars are uniquely designed to enable students to produce expository writing aimed at increasing general understanding of a given topic. It also seeks to help students to develop core strategies that underlie successful scholarly writing in the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics.

Junior SeminarThe Junior Seminar allows undergraduates and faculty to explore a scholarly topic of common interest in small group settings of no more than 15 students. This provides an excellent platform for students to discuss an intellectual topic in-depth and to present their ideas without the pressure of final examinations. Through this process, students will sharpen their inquiry and critical reasoning skills.

Click hereto find out more about the Junior Seminars offered by College of Alice & Peter Tan.Click here to find out more about the Junior Seminars offered by Residential College 4.Click here to find out more about the Junior Seminars offered by Tembusu College.

Senior SeminarsTargeted at Year 2 undergraduates enrolled in UTCP, Senior Seminars serve as an educational reflection of NUS’ focus on Global-Asia issues. Students are expected to read two Senior Seminars, of which one should be a Singapore Studies module.

Key features of these modules include the focus on a significant global issue that may be productively discussed from both Asian and Singapore perspectives; the emphasis in providing students with a pedagogically driven module that privileges the learning process as much as the product of teaching and learning; and the openness to multidisciplinary debates and input.

These modules are offered by experts from across the disciplines and possibly across geographical boundaries, each lending his/her professional expertise on a topical Global-Asia issue that exerts a vast impact on society.

Clickhere to find out more about the Senior Seminars offered by College of Alice & Peter Tan.Click hereto find out more about the Senior Seminars offered by Residential College 4.Click hereto find out more about the Senior Seminars offered by Tembusu College.

Click here to find out more about UTCP’s application and selection process.

Fulfilling UTCP Requirements

The UTCP curriculum offered in College of Alice & Peter Tan, Residential College 4 and Tembusu College comprises five modules read over four semesters: a Junior Seminar and Ideas & Exposition 1, typically read in the first year; as well as two Senior Seminars and Ideas & Exposition 2, typically read in the second year.

Students admitted as part of the Semester 1 UTCP freshman intake will be offered a two-year residency during which they are expected to complete the UTCP curriculum.

Students admitted as part of the Semester 2 UTCP freshman intake will be offered a three-semester residency during which they are expected to read four modules (and strongly encouraged to complete the five-module UTCP curriculum).

Students admitted as part of the Semester 1 UTCP senior intake will be offered a one-year residency during which they should read one module with their College.

Students admitted as part of the Semester 2 UTCP senior intake will be offered a one-semester residency during which they should read one module with their College.

Alternative learning pathways are designed for students from Law, Medicine, Dentistry, and selected programmes with curricular restrictions (e.g. Nursing, Architecture and Industrial Design) to still read modules as part of the residential college experience.

Fulfilling Degree Requirements with UTCP

The UTCP is designed to co-exist as an alternative pathway to fulfilling the University Level Requirements (20 MCs), which most NUS degree programmes require as part of graduation.

In some instances, UTCP students who read Ideas & Exposition modules are not required to read their Faculty’s compulsory writing / communication modules (also offered by the Centre for English Language Communication). As I&E modules may not be double-counted towards both University Level Requirements and Faculty requirements, such students may have to read another module to meet the modular credits needed for graduation, as advised by their Faculties.

Students whose programmes do not have University Level Requirements (namely Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and students on Joint Degree Programmes with overseas universities) should check with their respective programme administrators on how the UTCP modules may be classified for graduation.

UTCP students from Engineering (including Computer Engineering) or Science (except Pharmacy and Environmental Studies) are not required to read their Faculty’s compulsory writing / communication modules if they have read Ideas & Exposition modules.

Cohort 2015/2016Students who complete the UTCP (20 MCs) are exempted from the five modules in the GE curriculum (20 MCs). Five UTCP modules will be read in place of the five modules in the GE pillars.

UTCP students from Engineering or Science (except Pharmacy and Environmental Studies) are not required to read their Faculty’s Level 1000 compulsory writing / communication if they have read any Ideas & Exposition module.

Cohorts 2016/2017 onwardsStudents who complete the UTCP (20 MCs) are exempted from four of the five modules (16 MCs) of the GE curriculum. With effect from AY2016/2017, the University requires all undergraduates (with the exception of Law, Medicine (including Nursing) and Dentistry) to complete the GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning (QR) module. This is the fifth GE module, and serves to complete the GE requirements for UTCP students. GER1000 will be pre-allocated for students in their first or second semester. Four UTCP modules will be read in place of the GE modules to fulfil the University Level Requirements, and the fifth UTCP module will be read as an Unrestricted Elective (UE) or Faculty requirement if applicable.

UTCP students from Engineering, Arts and Social Sciences, or Science (except Pharmacy and Environmental Studies) are not required to read their Faculty’s Level 1000 compulsory writing / communication module if they have read any Ideas & Exposition module.